1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tape recording and/or reproducing apparatus for allowing data recorded on a tape-shaped recording medium to be comprehended easily, and a tape recording and/or reproducing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among known recording/reproducing apparatus capable of recording and reproducing digital data for a magnetic tape, there is a so-called tape streaming drive. This tape streaming drive can have an enormous recording capacity of, for example, tens to hundreds of gigabytes, depending on the tape length of a tape cassette as a recording medium. By this reason, the tape streaming drive is widely used for backup of data recorded on a recording medium, such as a hard disc of a main body unit of an electronic computer. The tape streaming drive is considered to be satisfactorily used for saving picture data of a larger data size.
As a tape streaming drive, there has been proposed one which records/reproduces data on, for example, an 8 mm-VTR tape cassette as a recording medium in accordance with a helical scan system by a rotary head.
Usually, a magnetic tape for data recording and reproduction by the tape streaming drive is wound on a reel rotatably mounted within a cassette casing. The magnetic tape is preserved by being housed within, for example, a tape cassette.
The tape cassette has a rotatably mounted reel on which the magnetic tape is wound and preserved. The tape cassette can have one or two reels.
With the tape cassette having only one reel, the tape has to be rewound before ejecting the tape cassette from the tape streaming drive.
With the tape cassette having two reels, the magnetic tape desirably is taken up in its entirety on one or the other reel. Moreover, since contaminants tend to be deposited if the data recording surface is exposed to the outside a prolonged time, even though the tape cassette is housed in the cartridge, the magnetic tape is usually rewound up to its leading end and is ejected in this state from the tape streaming drive.
Although the tape is rewound for the above reason, tape rewinding takes time depending on the tape length. This is not desirable in applications in need of frequent tape cassette exchange operations.
It may be occasionally desired to record data on a magnetic tape or reproduce data recorded on the magnetic tape under an environment in which contaminants have been removed to a required level without expecting prolonged storage. This type of the tape streaming drive is meritorious in application wherein the tape cassette loading time and tape cassette unloading time are shortened and the tape cassette is exchanged frequently.
If the magnetic tape is rewound frequently in the tape cassette, it may be feared that loading and unloading become extremely time-consuming.